Sky's Elena Delle Donne named East's Player of the Week

Sky's Elena Delle Donne named East's Player of the Week

For the fourth time this season, Elena Delle Donne has been named the Eastern Conference's Player of the Week, the WNBA announced Monday. Phoenix Mercury's Brittany Griner earned the West honor.

The All-Star forward averaged 23.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 1.67 blocks to guide the Sky to a 2-1 record this week, highlighted by a 33-point performance from Delle Donne in the team's win against the defending champion Mercury on Sunday night.

Delle Donne is currently the runaway leader for the league's scoring title (24.3 points per game), ranks fourth in rebounds per game (8.9) and blocks per game (2.1), and owns the best free throw percentage (.953).

The Sky have won three of their last four games, good enough to jump the Indiana Fever for third place in the conference. With a 14-9 record, the Sky are just 1.5 games back from first.

Sky continue early season struggles in loss to Sun

Sky continue early season struggles in loss to Sun

ROSEMONT — Jonquel Jones scored 19 of her career-high 23 points in the second half and finished with 21 rebounds to help the Connecticut Sun beat the Chicago Sky 97-79 on Sunday night.

Jones, who set her previous career best of 20 rebounds on May 13, became the 12th player in WNBA history with at least 20 points and 20 rebounds in a game. Alyssa Thomas had 17 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and two steals and Lynetta Kizer scored 16 with seven rebounds for Connecticut (1-4), which won its first game of the season.

Kizer’s jumper midway through the first quarter made it 14-13 and the Sun led the rest of the way. Jessica Breland hit two free throws to pull Chicago (1-5) within four with 4:37 left in the third, but Jones scored seven points during a 10-3 run over the next three-plus minutes and the Sky got no closer.

Tamera Young led Chicago with 17 points. She has at least one made 3-pointer in each of the last five games after going nearly five calendar years (June 23, 2011) since her last 3.

Elena Delle Donne returns to Chicago, helps Mystics take down Sky

The 2015 MVP asked to be traded in the offseason after four seasons with the Sky. She opened the scoring with a turnaround jumper from the free-throw line and finished 7-for-15 from the floor.

"Definitely feels weird coming in here, being in the guest locker room, being on the other bench and all," Delle Donne said. "But my teammates, they've been great and even in the locker room they're like, 'How you feeling? You good, you good?' Just checking on me, and that made me relax."

Neither team led by more than six points in the first three quarters, but Washington broke it open early in the fourth quarter with a 14-6 spurt. Delle Donne had six points during the span, Ivory Latta and Natasha Cloud each hit a 3-pointer, and the Mystics' lead didn't drop below eight points the rest of the way.

The Mystics shot only 40 percent but had 19 assists on 29 field goals.

"That's one of the best parts about our team is that we do move the ball well," Washington coach Mike Thibault said. "We're unselfish and we try to find the open man. If we had hit some 3s like we normally can, we might have had a few more."

Cappie Pondexter led the 10th-ranked Sky with 17 points and 10 assists. She also moved into seventh on the WNBA career assists list. Stefanie Dolson had 13 points and 11 rebounds against her former team, and Allie Quigley also scored 13 — all in the first half. Starting point guard Courtney Vandersloot missed her fourth game.

Quigley scored eight of the Sky's first 15 points in her first game of the season since returning from Turkey, and the Sky trailed 43-41 at halftime after shooting just 33 percent.